will end up walking away and losing all the money i have invested. also, the city of san francisco will be out 105,000 as i purchased a condo with the help of the mayor's office of housing and city second loan program. bank of america was the only choice i was given when i applied for and received my loan to the mayor's office of housing. my first choice was my local bank. [tone] president chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> hello, board of supervisors. i spoke with you a few weeks ago about digital city in san francisco. i want to share with you some of

the project for people are integrating technology throughout the city. i am a member of the south of market area, district 6. i'm working there to do -- i lead a team doing a knurl project in between fifth and howard and mission. the purpose is to bring together the artists and people from the community and after-school programs and sustainable designers and technologists to do a community improvement project. what we plan to do is develop what will be known as an augmented reality mural. the artists will be collaborating with architecture for humanity, san francisco chapter and working with local artists and others in the area where they will paint the mural and using a free mobile app, they can access this and when

the camera sees the mural, it will play a video that tells the story behind a project and we will update that with additional video and footage to share. it's something that i quickly wanted to share with you about how san francisco is starting to really integrate the digital with the real world. we're working with the building owners and others so i expect to have this soon and other augmented reality murals in the area as well. thank you. president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon, board of supervisors. my name is thomas and i u.s. army veteran. -- i'm a u.s. army veteran. the medical cannabis committee crafted and passed the following letter to be voted on and

supported by the task force. this is intended not only for relevance to the agency's but our own communities, medical cannabis businesses and collectives. san francisco prides itself on being a sanctuary city, however this about the case for one major population -- the medical cannabis community veterans. federal law supersedes state laws and veterans are caught in the middle. one major obstacle for veterans safe access is they cannot use or have cut their medicine in federal housing. locally, are sick and live law's targets are homeless veterans. nationally, on a given night, there are 107,000 veterans that are homeless. this is rising every day. our veterans who admit to be medical cannabis patients are being labeled addicts by our cities and by veterans' hospital. even worse, our committee heard

testimony of veterans being denied their psychiatric madison's and coming forth about their medical cannabis use. the suicide rate for returning veterans is sky high. a discount price on the market rate medical cannabis has not been proven helpful to low- income veterans who cannot afford their medicine. therefore, they have resolved that veterans who can afford their medical cannabis should -- you cannot afford the medical cannabis should be permitted to receive compassion care, free medical campus, at least once a week. currently, only a handful of collectives -- [tone] president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is james ward and i'm also a veteran. today was election day and there are some people here i voted for, jane and david.

i get a little frustrated because the campus task force doesn't help us but runs out. we have been put behind. every time we have something come up -- i've been applying to be a member of the veterans committee for three months and it keeps getting tabled. we want a voice. recently, the legislation became law on memorial day really hurt us. the federal government says we're going to enforce federal laws and as veterans are prone to the side. all my life, the va has called me an addict, and i'm not an addict. i'm a patient. i've never broken any other law in my life. i have been an upstanding citizen and i am getting a little tired of not being heard. that is what does the trends are looking for. we're looking for you board of supervisors to hear us and what we want to have some legislation

that says let's go with the state laws that allow this and let the veterans in those states partaken of medical cannabis. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i'm a retired veteran as well as being -- my father was in the korean war and i have a son that participated in two wars at the age of 26 and 27. i am presently on the veterans committee meeting, i of voter, but it took me five months to be seated on the veterans committee and i was born and raised in san francisco. saddened by the national policy putting profits before the entrance. i'm looking forward to working with the board and the supervisors on getting the veterans the help we need,

especially the females as well as male veterans. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, ladies and gentlemen of the board. i'm probably the youngest veteran here. i have served this country for almost eight years before i got a dishonorable discharge. some of the stuff i did was probably not up to code. but some of these that do need medical cannabis to prevent them from doing anything stupid when they get here stateside, whether they suffer from pst or whatever the case may be, i hope this may help you settle this discrimination. thank you very much. president chiu: next speaker.

>> a good afternoon, board of supervisors. i'm a member of the marijuana oversight committee as well as -- i have several members with military backgrounds, including one uncle that committed suicide because of posttraumatic stress. it distresses me that our own task force cannot support this letter for our veterans because the need is great. the voices may be a minority here in san francisco, but belie me, our veterans have fought hard for the rights that they deserve and i hope you family members -- i look at these seats here and most of you guys are part of my family, i hope you can find to get your hard to make sure these that gets the benefits they deserve.

medically as well as modestly. thank you. president chiu>> my name is thad i'm a disabled veteran. we are not allowed to go to federal court. we cannot sue the navy or the va. the bureaucrats at the v.a. are total tyrants and their words is the final answer. in 1950, a veteran at the wrong way it -- the wrong leg chopped off and the supreme court ruled they did not have jurisdiction. therefore, for the last 200 years from the beginning of the va when you had over 100 men, women, and children shot in front of the white house because they were complaining about their disability what they

wanted compensation, their blood spurred on the veterans administration because of the public outrage they created. in 1996, congress passed a law setting the veterans administration has to help veterans. they have not done that yet. now, what you have is 40% of the homeless people are veterans. you have more veterans dying on the streets than in actual combat. you have veterans coming back that our pilots from the air force that were given pharmaceutical speed to keep them awake for the long runs because they were doing so many tours. you have all these disabilities and you have atrocities happening at the v.a. hospital and these people are totally unaccountable. i want to quote the chairman of the senate oversight committee of the veterans administration -- he said these people need to go to prison.

ok? that's where we are at with veterans and that's why you have them dying on the street. any break you can give us would be greatly appreciated. hopefully you can recognize us as human beings. thank you. [tone] president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, board of supervisors. i'm a member of access of love and black brown canada's policy. i'm a little perturbed and upset at the medical campus task force. the reason ing is i know medical where bridget medical marijuana is a nonprofit the initiative -- i a no medical marijuana is a non-profit initiative. if they break the law, they're breaking the law. part of my problem is people are not putting patients in front of business pertaining to medical marijuana.

recently, i would say less than a quarter of the members on the medical marijuana task force are veterans. they are making decisions and this letter, i don't get. why are couple of bad actors on a medical marijuana task force going to stop this letter from going to the board of supervisors as the veterans road it? i don't want stuff sugarcoated if it comes to you from some task force. there are some bad actors on this task force. i've been here for over year watching it every session. these are serious issues. i come from a war family. my father made me and my brother promised we would never go to war. he should have made that same promise to my sister. she died as a veteran overseas. i remember my father, the lesions on his leg when he is

put in agent orange as a prisoner of war. these are my memories as a child. i should have fought harder because i.t. -- i became a victim of the drug war. i have served several sentences over these issues, the same issues i'm standing here -- are not a criminal. [tone] president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i am a medicinal marijuana patient, activists and a member of axis of love. and i am a concerned citizen. i speak as a bewildered and confused citizen. i don't understand why the issues keep getting tabled it seems unjust and unfair.

they have the same benefits as all other medical marijuana patients. all suffer due to illness is and what seems to be, instead of making access safe and easy, it seems like it's getting harder and harder with clubs closing. i would just like to ask if we could please get some type of relief. i would really appreciate it. thank you. >> good afternoon members of the board. i'm the current chair of the medical cannabis task force. i want to let the city family know that first off on the agenda will be the seating of the veterans who have been awaiting their seating for some up to five or six months.

we have members of the legal community waiting to sit on our legal committee. i want to state that we need to all be working on the issue of equity and safe access. we are falling behind. we are one of two sanctuary cities in the world for medical cannabis. yes, the district columbia is ahead of us in legislation and has made provisions for low- income patients which i assume would include low-income veterans. we all need to get up to speed on that issue. i did reach out to my district supervisor, supervisor kim in helping us navigate some of the issue for veterans and making a match with the veterans commission and finding out how we can address some of the more serious issues like denying psychiatric medicine at to

medicinal cannabis patients and i also one to state that i will be putting forth a motion to condemn the current administration's memorial day slap in the face to the united states canada's veterans and i hope most of the supervisors here would sign on to this letter. thank you for your time. [applause] president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm a member of the immigrants' rights commission. i'm here today because the commission sent you each a letter about our language access report and i'm sure you have copies. about the importance of making sure there is enough money for departments to continue access. every year at this time, you are

laden down with the budget any may not have had time to read this letter so i wanted to pass it out again and make two points of my own. three points. one is you can't find a sign in city hall anywhere the tin spanish or chinese. i would very much like to know about it. city hall is not doing well and language access. i would like to point out everybody pays taxes. even if you don't fill out a federal 1040 form because you are to pour, you still pay taxes. you pay taxes through your sales tax and pay taxes three or rent. renters' help the landlord's property taxes. you are paying state and local

funds. everybody should be entitled to speak to get language access. and get any needed government services. you don't have to be a citizen or speaking wish to pay taxes. we hope you will retain the money that is needed to make that possible. the other point i would like to make is i hope in the next budget revision that we will conform -- [tone] president chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> ims native san franciscan, born and raised here in san francisco and paid taxes and voted since i was 18. i'm here to discuss two issues

-- one as mental health rights. there have been a lot of cutbacks for mental health outpatient clinics. of vouchers for food, clothes, toiletries. with a low income we have, you only get enough for rent and food and that is it. it doesn't leave much room for clothes or anything else. if you want to get back to work, you can i get the clothes you need for interviews. it's difficult to get help with resumes. commission hours have been cut and staff members have less hours for service on that. the other issue of want to discuss is going back to the first one, we need those services reinstated or we will have a protest in front of city hall at every mental health patient protesting with their families. it is ridiculous we are getting cutbacks affecting our lives. it is just ridiculous. homelessness is a big issue because mental health patients are often homeless and we're getting flooded from other

cities. new york, manhattan, chicago, all giving you one way ticket to san francisco. they are flooding our system. it's not right for people not to apply because it is flooded and they have to wait a few months because someone from new york just got it. that needs to stop at the next mayors summit. we need to pressure the mayor to put a stop to those cities bringing their homeless here. we're not going to take on the homeless of the whole country. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> members of the board of supervisors, and the director of san francisco open government, and i will be submitting a 150 word statement. i'm beginning to wonder how bright the board of supervisors is. the recent action regarding the sunshine ordinance is evident in one simple fact -- they're

replacing every last member of the task force. supervisors wiener and farrell would argue we have not replace them all and to that i would say not yet. the new members are compromised. if they decide against a citizen, it's because a citizen -- is it because the office and failed to make their case or because the members know their fate if the fight against the board of supervisors? the board of supervisors has compromised its own when says a questionable -- as the question will arise today when or did they intimidate the jury? in fact, i'm certain that message has reached all boards and commissions. here is your fate should you decide the case against us. i have to wonder if the ethics commission case regarding the sheriff is also compromised. after all, the members of the ethics commission must now understand the repercussions of finding other than what they are told to find.

the bottom line is boards and commissions in this city work at your beck and call or the mayors back and call and if they make a decision like the task force did and it is something they side with the citizen against you, the justice and retribution will be swift and sure. every single member of the task force is being replaced because they decided cases against you. if you want to dress up in some other language and say it was because they did something a year ago about which we said nothing during that entire year, you have to think we are a bunch of idiots. as far as the previous speakers -- [tone] president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> mind name isace ace washingt

just to show how silly the city government is what i have never seen it as low as it is here. i see intelligent white men come up here and you still pay no attention. one thing we must do is collaborate and ask the federal government, the state, somebody to come here to san francisco to see how corrupt the department heads are, to see how corrupt the commissioners are. to see how our city government has been running in the last 10 or 15 years. the morale is going down even more. ladies and gentleman, yours truly, h washington is here to protect my people. i go to sleep black and make-up black. we have a state of emergency for the black african-americans here. we just have one black supervisor here all by herself. i'm not going to blame everything on her.

the box tops at the mayor's office. supervisors, let me go down the line of all the corrupt agencies in which i have been doing a study of. the human rights commission, the commission that handles the communications, the african- american community has been slaughtered and we have nothing to do with the cameras that goes on here. when i'm the creator of the government channel. ladies and gentleman, and going to file a federal government to have this whole city investigated. all these department heads and of war -- and of the board of stupak advisers. i'm convinced without a doubt this city is the most corrupt, racist city in the united states. you know how to get rid of negros. you can do that through urban renewal, but dammit, we are still here. something is going to happen to this city.

president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i have been living in a san francisco for 28 years and driving a cab for more than 20 years and the policies are hurting drivers like me. we are already suffering from the pilot program and on top of that, they are -- they are bypassing [unintelligible] as long as they have been evaluating this, the qualified drivers on the waiting list. i am asking for your help.

i need my medallion. not 10 or 15 years from now. i need my medallion now. not 10 or 15 years from now when i will be retired. supervisors, since the taxicab commission is changing all the rules set by the people of san francisco several years ago before the previous board of supervisors -- the former president of the board asked the former executive director to you intend to change and the executive director said no and look what happens. the actions of the mta jeopardize the integrity of this board. therefore, i urge you to put everything back the way it was before the mta took over the texas commission. -- the taxi commission.

3.5% the cab drivers have to pay credit cards feet. [tone] -- credit-card fee. president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i came down today because i support the legislation you had before you, item number 23. but i do have concerns. it do not take a year for business to be taken care of dealing with this small issue. number one, i was thinking if you hire me as your consultant, i will have it done for you in less than six weeks. you can laugh, but i'm telling the truth. number one -- you need an eight

seat here to be on the committee which is the comptroller's office. i didn't even see the group that called workforce sitting on the committee. number one, if you continue at the rate for one-year, the people are still going to be ripped off. it's been done every day. especially with latinos because they cannot speak english. i'm quite sure some of you was not here when we had to deal with amoco that was it in hunters point and how they was taken as people's money and not paying them the way that they should. i will have a professional to come and give a workshop. this is what is needed all the city agency. i tried to talk to them during the time when we was doing the

hiring for construction. they will not listen. it seems as though when i make suggestions, it's blacklisted with the people back into a job for the city. they don't want the job is what i'm saying. don't take a year, it down even take three months. for transparent, it should be open where everyone can see what people are doing. some of these things on here, these people have been doing crap for the last 15 years and it needs to stop. i want you to hire me. [applause] [tone] president chiu: thank you. are there any other members of the public who wish to speak in public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. why don't we go to our 3:30 special order? and a supervisor elsbernd